Sheldon Metal Lathe
I had been seriously jonesing for a metal lathe for a couple years. I had seen one or two South Bends go by on Craig's list, but usually too rich for my blood. In 2009, I found out about this opportunity. The lathe was available in an estate sale and the sellers wanted $500.
Oh yeah. Sweet. It's just such a cool old lathe. Based on the serial number, it apparently was built in about 1941. It is an 11" swing, 36" bed, with quick change gear box and power feed.
It came with a serious pile of tooling. 3-jaw chuck, 4-jaw chuck, Jacobs chuck, a mess of tool holders, two knurlers, boring bars, a huge pile of cutters, many of which are brand new and never have been ground (despite being probably 50 years old), drills, reamers, and on and on. And the most amazing thing is every chuck has its wrench.
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All of this was in a neat little six-drawer oak finger-jointed chest, which needs some serious repair:
The lathe was well taken care of. It will need some cleaning, because all the gears are caked in sawdust and the oil and grease are all dried up. Can't wait to get it going again.
Information on Sheldon lathes can be found at the Sheldon Lathe Yahoo Group.
If you've got an old lathe like this and want to learn how to use it, I recommend "Care and Use of a Lathe" by Sheldon Machine Co. You can get it from Lindsay Books for less than $10 and it provides a lot of good info.